CHEAP TRICK – Woke Up With A Monster [Rare Japanese Edition +1]

With the very good new CHEAP TRICK album – a band that never fails in delivering quality material, many of you asked for some of their other, lesser known records. We think their 1994’s “Woke Up With A Monster” is a criminally underrated platter, appeared in a time when Cheap Trick’s melodic feel-good vibe wasn’t in the music industry focus.
Amidst competing with the grunge movement of its time, ”Woke Up With A Monster” pulsated then, and radiates still, in 2021. With songs that beat down the door of stagnant Rock Music and kicks it’s weak ass from sunrise to sundown, this is a Cheap Trick album that sets an example of just how to rock steady in the face of pop-cultural ignorance of the day.
With songwriting contributions from the likes of Jim Peterik, Mark Spiro & Terry Reid and a bright production by Ted Templeman, ”Woke Up With A Monster” is a kickin’ album that glows bright amongst the glut of mid 1990’s Rock and Hard Rock album releases, which many seemed to stray away from having any semblance of Classic Rock influence all together.
This is the rare Japanese Edition never reissued, featuring a bonus track never included into any compilation released after.

For all intents and Rock ‘N’ Roll purposes, the songs on ”Woke Up With A Monster” are a listen and quick study in what Rock greatness is all about, when you don’t try to reinvent the wheel or join the trends. The songwriting, the lyrics, the vocals, the all too irresistible Rock sound of Cheap Trick. Just like comfort food.
Sounds so simplistic doesn’t it? If Rock ‘N’ Roll “focus” was a pre-requisite for Cheap Trick to carry on as a band for all these years, they certainly bestowed a monumental ton of it, while creating their 12th studio album, regardless if there was “outside” assistance in songwriting.

From the onset, ‘My Gang’ sets off the rockin’ tone of this album with all the Cheap Trick familiarities that are so unique to this band’s sound. From the tight as cousins rhythm section of Tom Petersson on bass and Bun E. Carlos on drums, to Robin Zanders’s Rock profound vocals, with Rick Nielsen’s song altering guitar play, Cheap Trick certainly walloped my senses with ”Woke Up With A Monster”.
The title track being my favorite song doesn’t distract me from the other eleven. However, this title song gets more tasty to my ears each time I listen to it… even if I have lost count after all these years.

‘Love Me For A Minute’ is another gem that grooves along with a punchy melodic aura. Nielsen on guitar plays some crafty licks throughout, giving this song it’s melodic driving appeal. Zander sings this song like it’s the biggest Cheap Trick hit from their career too. A “wow” song that ends the regular version of this album on a very, very, high note.

I remember reading in magazine back in the day that on ”Woke Up With A Monster” Cheap Trick flirted with the grunge sound of the era. Hell, my ears don’t even hear a hint of it. Even if the band members themselves were to tell me they veered towards a grunge “feel”, I’m not listening. This is Cheap Trick and it’s as underrated an album as there can possibly ever exist.
As fickle and wavering the “general Rock listening public” was back in the mid ’90s, ”Woke Up With A Monster” did get released. It was during an era where the “flavor of the month club” was buying up whatever the “experts” on MTV and VH1 were hawking. Great Rock Music will always stand the test of time. The songs on this Cheap Trick album should easily speak for themselves in 2021, with an almost bone chilling relevancy.

True and great Rock Music was never meant to be disposable… we’ll leave that disposable stuff to other genres. Our intent, in getting the word back out on ”Woke Up With A Monster” is to rekindle past fans of this album and shake loose new fans that this Cheap Trick release exists.
Highly Recommended

01 – My Gang
02 – Woke Up With A Monster
03 – You’re All I Wanna Do
04 – Never Run Out Of Love
05 – Didn’t Know I Had It
06 – Ride The Pony
07 – Girlfriends
08 – Let Her Go
09 – Tell Me Everything
10 – Cry Baby
11 – Love Me For A Minute
BONUS TRACK FOR JAPAN ONLY:
12 – Sabre Dance

Robin Zander – lead vocals, rhythm guitar
Rick Nielsen – lead guitar, backing vocals
Tom Petersson – bass, backing vocals
Bun E. Carlos – drums, percussion

out of print